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Colne Mere wiped out! People often talk about the end of an era, and 2010 has been one of those years. Heather the Leather’s sad demise surely signifies an end to big name carp fishing on the Yateley complex, and with only Arfur and a couple of his mates left, what has the future got in store for big carp hunters on this venue? Two Tone, the UK’s most often caught British record sadly left us in August, which puts an end to the pursuit of that dream, so where will the UK’s next record come from? Let’s pray it’s not France! But the Colnemere wipeout has really made me think of what a fine line we walk between big carp fishing as we know it and a future far different to that I have known in my lifetime. Not that there won’t be named fish; of course there will be future generations of Single Scales and One Pecs, but the era of Mary, Bazil, Two Tone and Heather is now at an end. Colnemere’s end was apparently down to oxygen levels. One day is was 80%, and the next 0.5%, or something crazy like that, and every living thing in the lake died – a deadly mix of algae and rain, can you believe? Unbelievable, but true. I must admit when I first heard about it, I thought some crazy son of a b**** had poisoned the lake, but I am informed that you would need a tanker load to do that to a water the size of the Mere. No, in fact it was Mother Nature, and I’ll say it again, “What a fine line we walk.” What a shame, and RIP The Black Mirror – one, if not THE finest carp in the country.